Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
Leonardo da Vinci
It’s no secret that I put a lot of stake in storytelling. It’s kind of my schtick, after all. Be it film, television, novels, gaming – hell, even politics – I find storytelling to be one of our most powerful tools of communication and exploration of ideas. A good story speaks to reality in ways that hit cords in the person experiencing it. It doesn’t have to be flashy or complicated, but it must be done right. It must speak to a truth that the audience can relate with in some manner. If not, the medium stumbles before the finish line. A movie can be as flashy as you want, but if you miss the story it’ll fall flat. And, vice versa, if you have a masterpiece of scriptwriting, you can shoot the whole thing in a single room and create something that lasts generations.
All that said, two entirely disconnected events took place that had me reconsider a few stances on this. The first being the trailer for the upcoming film 28 Years Later, and the second being Astro Bot winning this year’s Game Awards for Best Game of 2024.
I’ll be the first to admit I did a heavy eye-roll when I found out they were making another sequel to 28 Days Later. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched that movie, but I do remember it being a spectacular “zombie” (they aren’t, technically) flick and it’s stuck with me for years. The second, 28 Weeks Later, was a little more hit or miss but I still enjoyed that. Now that we’re in the time of remakes and remasters and sequels and general lack of new ideas, seeing another legendary title pulled up from the dredges had me ready to pass over it right away.
Then, the trailer dropped.
I’m not gonna mince words – trailers have been boiled down to a science. It’s easy to cut up a montage of best-of-the-best clips into a minute-plus bite and get anyone excited for most anything. That’s not what this is. This is a masterpiece. This trailer is what all trailers should be. It sells you on the tone of the film and the tone alone. The urgent, ramping terror. The fear. I know nothing but the barest information from this and, really, I don’t want to know anything else. If another trailer drops, I’ll probably skip it. This got me. I’m bought in and I want to go as blind as possible.
So, what about Astro Bot?
Well, consider this the polar opposite. This quirky little 3D platformer is simple, straight forward fun. Does it sell you on its atmosphere? Sure, I suppose so. It’s got a bunch of references and cameos from other games as little bots you can interact with as you go exploring these wonderful, fun levels but that’s about where it ends. It’s a love letter to Sony for 30 years of Playstation and, in the end, it’s just fun made for the sake of fun. Winning GotY saw it overtaking games that are lightyears beyond it in storytelling, narrative, graphical fidelity, complexity… you name it, really. There was a lot of immediate uproar from the gaming community over the win because of that, and I was almost on board until I gave it a few minutes.
Because, you see, these led me to understand a simple truth. It’s all art. Storytelling is art. Tone is art. Design is art. And art, ultimately, is an experience. Art isn’t a message, and it isn’t something pushed forward by the creator. It’s all in the reception by the audience. Did that trailer need a script to get me fully engrossed? Clearly not, no one says a word. Did Astro Bot need a world-saving, deeply dramatic story to capture the hearts of players young and old alike? Sure didn’t. In each case, we experienced something that resonated with us. We experienced the tension and dread of that world nearly three decades dead to the rage virus. We experienced the colorful, whimsical joy of grappling and bouncing around while thousands of bits and bobs exploded all over the screen.
Storytelling is important, but it isn’t everything. It’s just a pillar in the experience, and that experience is different to all of us.
Will that make it any less important to me? Hell, no. But, I’ll be a little better on understanding where audiences come from when they to scoop up things that don’t seem to care about it at all.
Until next week, when I lay into one particular genre entirely. Can’t keep my head too above water, I guess.
Themeattics 